The Efflorescence of Weird Poetry
H. P. Lovecraft considered himself a poet first and foremost: on the 1930 census form, he listed his occupation as “poet.” Yet, weird poetry is largely overlooked by Lovecraft fans in favor of prose. Poets in the weird poetry movement posit that poetry (particularly formal metred poetry) is the most Lovecraftian medium of all, and the best for expressing spectral moods and effects—for conveying the vastness of cosmic horror. Joshi (M), Bolivar, Dioses, Brock, Myers, Opperman
Illustration is "HP Lovecraft" by Virgil Finlay, 1937
S. T. Joshi is the author of such critical studies as The Weird Tale (Univ. of Texas Press, 1990), H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West (Starmont House, 1990), The Modern Weird Tale (McFarland, 2001), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (PS Publishing, 2012). He has edited a corrected edition of H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction (Collected Fiction: A Variorum Edition [Hippocampus Press, 2015–16]) as well as The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works (Night Shade Books, 2001; rev. ed. Hippocampus Press, 2013) and Collected Essays (Hippocampus Press, 2004–06; 5 vols.). He has prepared three annotated editions of Lovecraft’s tales for Penguin (1999–2004). His exhaustive biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press, 1996), won the British Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award; a revised and expanded edition has appeared as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (Hippocampus Press, 2010).
Joshi has done scholarly work on other authors of supernatural fiction. He is the author of a bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1993) and critical study of Lord Dunsany (Lord Dunsany: Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination [Greenwood Press, 1995]), and a critical study of Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction [Liverpool Univ. Press, 2001]). He has prepared editions of the work of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and other writers. He is the coeditor (with Stefan Dziemianowicz) of Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2005).
Joshi has edited such anthologies as American Supernatural Tales (Penguin, 2007), the Black Wings series (PS Publishing, 2010f.), Searchers After Horror (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014), A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Centipede Press, 2014), and The Madness of Cthulhu (Titan Books, 2014–15).
Adam Bolivar is a poet of dark fantasy, a weird fiction writer, and a marionette playwright with a particular interest in balladry, alliterative verse and Jack tales. He is the author of _The Lay of Old Hex_ (Hippocampus Press, 2017), _The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill_, (Jackanapes Press, 2021), _Ballads for the Witching Hour_ (Hippocampus Press 2022), and the forthcoming _A Wheel of Ravens_ (Jackanapes Press, 2023). A native of Boston, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.
Jason V Brock is an award-winning writer, editor, filmmaker, and artist whose work has been widely published in a variety of media (Weird Fiction Review print edition, S. T. Joshi's Black Wings series, Fangoria, and others). He describes his work as Dark Magical Realism. He is also the founder of a website and digest called [NameL3ss]; his books include A Darke Phantastique, Disorders of Magnitude, and Simulacrum and Other Possible Realities. His filmic efforts are Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man, The AckerMonster Chronicles!, and Image, Reflection, Shadow: Artists of the Fantastic. Popular as a speaker and panelist, he has been a special guest at numerous film fests, conventions, and educational events, and was the 2015 Editor Guest of Honor for Orycon 37. A health nut/gadget freak, he lives in the Vancouver, WA area, and loves his wife Sunni, their family of herptiles, running their technology consulting business, and practicing vegan/vegetarianism.
D. L. Myers is a writer of Weird poetry in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. His work has appeared in Spectral Realms, Halloween Howlings and K. A. Opperman's The Crimson Tome. He also is an accomplished reader of poetry, and he does a weekly video poetry reading of contemporary and classic Weird poets, as well as his own work, which he posts on his blog vulravin.blogspot.com. He also had his debut live poetry reading at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, San Pedro. He lives in the mist-shrouded Skagit Valley of the Pacific Northwest.
A native southern Californian, K. A. Opperman is a poet of horror and fantasy writing in the Weird tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. His work has appeared in such notable publications as Spectral Realms, Weird Fiction Review, Weirdbook, Skelos, Gothic Blue Book, the Horror Writers Association's Horror Poetry Showcase, and many other magazines. His debut book-length verse collection The Crimson Tome was released by Hippocampus Press in August 2015, and he has a second collection well underway. Against the fashion of the times, he writes solely in careful rhyme and meter, whether it be for a magazine, or for a wine label for Lovecraft Wines.